If the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys had any chance of beating the Ouachita Baptist Tigers on Thursday night, they had to contain OBU senior sharpshooter Austin Mitchell, who scored 27 in OBU’s 57-52 win in Arkadelphia and has averaged 19.4 points per game against ATU in their last seven games.

Wonder Boys junior Kendell Pinkney of Dardanelle accepted the challenge, shut the sharpshooter down and held him to no points inside Tucker Coliseum. But Arkansas Tech still had to wait until Nigel Ramsey’s potential game-winning 3-pointer was no good at the buzzer for the 52-50 Great American Conference win.

“It’s terrible. When that shot went up, it seemed like it took forever,” Wonder Boys head coach Doug Karleskint said. “Man, that was a long 2.5 seconds. But we won the game and we’re happy. That was a big-time play by a big-time player (Williamson). I’m glad he’s with us, and I’m glad he’s stepping up. It wasn’t his best night, but he’s still got to be on the floor for us.

“We just went to a diamond-in-one (defense), and KP (Pinkney) had texted me earlier in the week and said, ‘I want him the entire game.’ He has to be exhausted right now. To hold a great player like Austin Mitchell to zero points, it proves how hard KP works. We were going to make them beat us, and they didn’t.”

Now, there is a tie for first place in the GAC men’s division between Harding, which lost to Henderson State 70-68 at Searcy, and Arkansas Tech (13-8 overall, 10-5 GAC), which travels to Arkadelphia to face the Reddies at 4 p.m. Saturday inside the Duke Wells Center.

After trailing by nine late in the first half, Paul Cooper’s slam dunk with 2:24 remaining in the second half put the Wonder Boys in front for good, 47-45.

Jared Williamson of Russellville padded the lead (50-45) with a 3-pointer from 25 feet out at the top of the key as the shot clock buzzer blared with 1:13 showing. But OBU’s Julian LaDay nailed a 3-pointer and two free throws in the final 50 seconds to pull the Tigers with 51-50 with 9.6 seconds left.

“Paul Cooper gave us some huge baskets, some big extra passes outside, just a really big-time effort from him,” Karleskint said. “That slam dunk showed why he was a Big 12 player. I’m just really proud of those guys. They just keep battling and finding ways to win.

“These guys are really taking it upon themselves to win it for all the guys in the locker room who can’t play. It’s really bonded us together.”